President Trump will reportedly meet with the entire Republican caucus on Capitol Hill Tuesday to push the caucus toward passing two immigration bills in the coming days.
A House leadership aide confirmed to the Washington Examiner the meeting will take place at 5:30 Tuesday evening and comes on the heels of a tumultuous end of the week for the White House’s messaging on immigration reform.
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., had originally planned to bring a bill authored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and one authored by GOP leadership to the floor for votes next week, yet those plans were thrown into limbo following comments made by the president Friday morning.
Trump said during an impromptu interview with Fox News that he would not support the more “moderate one” – the bill authored by Ryan.
The White House later clarified Trump’s comments, claiming that POTUS would support both bills as long as they put forward his previously touted four “pillars” of immigration: reduce chain migration, $16 billion for construction of a border wall, end the visa lottery system, and provide a pathway to citizenship for up to 1.8 million “Dreamers” who came to the U.S. illegally as children.
“The President fully supports both the Goodlatte bill and the House leadership bill,” White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah stated Friday evening. “In this morning’s interview, he was commenting on the discharge petition in the House, and not the new package. He would sign either the Goodlatte or the leadership bills.”
The official House schedule for next week lists immigration votes as possible, but not definite.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s inquiries on the meeting.
Christian Datoc contributed to this report
